(gentle music) (gentle music) (graphic trills) - Welcome to "Meet .the Candidates."

I'm Jennifer Fuller.

Today, we're talking with State Senator Terri Bryant of Murphysboro, who represents the 58th State Senate District in Southern Illinois, and Representative Dave Severin of Benton, who represents, or will represent, the 116th State House District.

I make that clarification because of redistricting.

Both of these districts have changed rather dramatically over the last couple of years.

Senator, Representative, thanks for joining us.

- Thanks for having us today.

- Appreciate it.

- Pleasure to be here.

- If we could start, Senator, with you, and then I'll move to you, Representative, about those changes in your district.

You're introducing yourself to all new people this year, because what used to be laid out as more of a north-south district is now more of an east-west district for you.

Can you talk a little bit about how that redistricting has changed your campaign, and what you're hearing?

- Well, I'm unopposed this cycle, and I think a lot of that has to do with the way the map is drawn.

The District is going from roughly 62% Republican to about 72 to 75% Republican.

And so for that reason, I believe right now I don't have a Democrat opponent, but the funny thing about this is now I will have, I'll actually be river to river.

So from Missouri to Indiana and from roughly Murphysboro, my House in Murphysboro, all the way up almost to Lawrenceville, and that includes portion of the metro east over on the Mississippi side.

One conversation so far has been from the eastern side of the district right on the Wabash River, asking me what I know about people who live in the river bottoms.

And I said, well, very familiar with the folks who live on the Mississippi River bottoms, but Wabash I'm sure is similar and different.

So it'll be a little bit just different getting to know the folks on the Indiana side of the border, but I'm looking forward to it.

- Thanks, Representative, your district has shifted a little bit north versus running further south from your home in Benton.

How have things changed for you as far as that redrawing goes?

- So I appreciate you asking.

So actually I had Franklin County, Williamson County, and most of Hamilton county, and now I pick up seven new counties.

So with the new remap redistrict, I still fortunately have Benton is in the district, didn't have to move.

So I have half of Franklin County and I'll quick give you the county rundown.

Of course, I have the Eastern side of Senator Bryant's senate district.

So Jefferson County is new to me and I had Hamilton County, but now have almost all of it for, but before I had just half of it.

So Jefferson County, Hamilton County, then we go east to White County, which is the Carmi is largest community in that county.

Then we go north to Wabash, which is up to Mount Carmel, Albion.

Then we go to Wayne County, Edwards County, and then Marion County.

Senator and I, we have one precinct in Marion County and then I have one precinct in Washington County, and I think she has the rest of Washington County, I believe.

So again, already working really hard to continue to meet the needs of our constituents in a current district, and then meeting people and going places and parades and talking to people in businesses, ribbon cuttings, knocking on doors, all those kinds of things.

And likewise, as my Senator, I'm running unopposed in the November election, but if you're gonna do this job correctly, you're always running.

You're always working to be accessible to your constituents.

And so the people in the new district are learning it, finding that out, making new friends, and letting 'em know that I'm not just gonna be in-bent and hanging out, but my Tahoe is on the road.

- Well, let's kind of jump into the issues then, Representative.

You mentioned that you're always campaigning.

What would you say is the most important issue facing your district today?

- So I would say this, just that the power concern in Southern Illinois or the lack thereof, that's what's coming.

And everyone is talking about people leaving the state, and that is a major concern, and then employees, and that is a major concern.

But this spike, and no pun-intended, in our cost to our constituents, I own two small businesses to not only as a homeowner, but to businesses as far as energy costs, that is a major concern.

And we're addressing that in Southern Illinois.

Senator will probably talk about, and I will too, about some bills that we've introduced to address those concerns, but it's great that we have people still here in businesses, but they've gotta be able to pay their bills and those kinds of things.

So I would say that that is a number one concern.

And there's so many concerns and we're addressing all of it, but I wanna make sure that people know that we're aware of that, we're working on that.

We've talked about it in committees.

When we were in session, we talked about it on the House on the Senate floor.

And we didn't just talk about, we brought to the House floor and the Senate floor the importance and the debacle what this was gonna do to our districts, to Southern Illinois.

And so I think that that's a long answer to my answer there, sorry.

- Sure, sure.

Senator, what about you, the biggest issue facing your district?

- Yeah, I have to agree that it's energy right now because energy impacts our healthcare, it impacts the schools, it impacts people in their own personal home, it impacts jails and prisons, which we have tons of state facilities here.

I received a note from a very small school district in Union County, which by the way, I will no longer represent Union County or any of Carbondale in this new district, but I expect folks will still be reaching out.

But this little school said that they're gonna have between 13,000 and $30,000 worth energy expenditures that they did not anticipate because their energy costs have doubled on just on what energy is costing us now off the MISO grid.

And really, the only place those schools will have to go, if that does come to fruition, is they're gonna go back to property taxes.

So you can see that these increased energy costs don't just affect us at home when we get our Ameren bill or our Co-op bill.

They're gonna affect us in a lot of other areas.

And so small businesses, for instance, I've heard multiple restaurants who made it through COVID, who are now saying they just don't think they can take this final hit on doubled energy costs.

And that comes from the ICSEG bill that was passed.

It isn't just ICSEG because much of the Midwest is following this same path of the war on coal coming outta the Biden Administration and certainly outta the Pritzker Administration.

And that's left our grid, which is the MISO grid, having very expensive costs to put energy on that grid.

So Representative Severin is right in that he and I are both filing, I filed them and that he's gonna be filing some clone bills in the House, but they're to keep Prairie State energy and the energy generating plant in Springfield open.

It'll cut some red tape.

Right now we know that Baldwin Power Plant is going to be shutting down fully in 2025.

There's no stopping that.

But I ask the question of what it would take to get the generator that they've already shut down back online if they needed to.

And they actually have to go through the whole process as if they were a brand new generating facility to get that back online again.

This would cut some red tape.

And it would also allow us to, the third bill would allow us to build some new peaker plants so when we are at a place where we're just not able to keep up, those peaker facilities could kick in and keep our energy lower.

To economic development, just to remember this, that we have been able to bring in the Amazons, the Rivian in Peoria.

Those companies a lot of times came in because our energy in Illinois has been cheap.

It's been the one area that we really could go out and recruit in the area of economic development.

And now we are gonna become a very expensive energy state to live in.

We'll be importing energy from the very states that are still burning coal and we'll stop being an exporter.

So very important issue.

- Certainly.

The next question kind of deals with what you're talking about in terms of filing bills and working together as a legislature.

A lot of people in Southern Illinois feel that this region is overlooked when it comes to statewide issues.

Senator, how would you work with lawmakers from across Southern Illinois, as well as Central and Northern Illinois to make sure that those issues become priority?

- Well, I would say in many, many cases we're already doing that.

For instance, today I was on a group that's called the Higher Education Working Group.

It's bipartisan and bicameral.

And we are a working group that tries to figure out how do we make things better for higher education in the state of Illinois?

That includes community colleges as well as our public universities, and sometimes even private colleges come into play on that.

We're trying to figure out things like, how do we make education at the higher education level more affordable?

How do we get information out to students who are coming outta high school quicker because right now we're playing catch up with some other states?

So there's just one example.

I do think that we worked really well together, even though people get really irritated about paying a couple, you know, a little bit more at the pumps.

We know that the way we fund our roads and bridges in Illinois is through the Motor Fuel Tax.

I would like to see us work at ending the state sales tax on gasoline.

That's what's really hurting us, but I certainly know that we worked together to make sure that Southern Illinois got their fair share of dollars coming in on roads.

And we are at a place right now that I hoped we would be where I'm getting calls with people complaining that there's too many roadblocks up, 'cause there's too much road construction going on.

So the working together to make sure that things not only get passed, but also making sure that when they are passed that we get our fair share, I think we've been able to do that so far and we'll continue to do that going forward.

I'm willing to talk to anyone and work with anyone who doesn't wanna put a thumb on Southern Illinois and who does not violate the core values of things that I believe are super important to Southern Illinoisans.

- Certainly.

Representative, what about you?

How have you worked and how would you continue to work with lawmakers from across the state for Southern Illinois?

- I appreciate the question.

And so in Southern Illinois, of course, the House and the Senate are Republicans.

And so we're on the phone almost daily talking to each other back and forth, but also on the other side of the aisle, I will say this, Walker's Bluff is at the place it's at today because of Senator Bryant and myself and others in Southern Illinois working across the aisle to get that done.

And so that's one large thing that's going on now.

In fact, if you follow on the Facebook page, Cindy Bunches, she's posted some, given the updates, and you can see the building, how the progression is going.

That is one piece.

Something else that someone called me from a juvenile detention center here in Benton with the concern of not having enough staff and trying to figure out what they were gonna do and address those concerns.

So I immediately got on the phone, start talking to people, the Mental Health and Addiction Committee that I serve as the spokesperson for the Republicans.

I talked to my fellow Representatives on both sides of the aisle.

And so I put together a bill.

And I will tell you this, Representative Hammond, she's Democrat from Champagne.

She got up on the House floor and she basically told the House, "If you don't vote for this bill," she said, "I'm gonna come talk to you."

And she might have said it a little more emphatic than that.

So she said, "Representatives," she said, "I absolutely am a chief co-sponsor of your bill and will do everything I can to help you with that."

Now, I, of course, had talked to other people, but I hadn't talked to her.

And so she came to me and she demanded that she'd be a part of it.

So that just kinda shows you.

And we were able to get that pass in the House.

And so that's just one of the things.

And again, Walker's Bluff and other things going on and as far as what Senator talked about, is the roads and bridges and those things that are coming to Southern Illinois.

And actually had the same thing.

I had someone call my office and said the progression of Route 57, the third lane, north and south, it's actually 7 million a mile for that lane to be put in on each side, north and south.

And so they wanted to know when it was gonna get done.

And so I said, let me share with you what the original plan was.

It was gonna be over 20 years.

I said with this new opportunity, it's gonna be going faster.

So working across out, you know.

I will say this, and I'll give a shout out and here's the problem with this interview today, Senator Bryant and I both like to talk.

And so our answers are long, but I just wanna throw this out to you real quick.

I learned as a young kid, my mom and dad were in the nursing home business and they had 96 residents, 75 staff.

They pastored a church.

My dad built his own church, but this is what I learned growing up in that family.

I never heard one time my mom and dad ever say someone was a Republican or a Democrat.

They took care of the residents.

They took care of the staff.

They ministered to the people in their church.

And not one time, and my parents were impeccably platinum in the community that we live in, that when you say the Severin name, it's not because of me, it's because of my parents.

And I learned that and I watched that, and I've taken that into being a Representative.

Senator Bryant does the same thing.

And that's what enables us to when I'm looking at a situation or a challenge, I'm looking at that.

I'm not looking at a D or an R or whatever.

I'm looking at the challenge.

- That leads directly.

(laughs) That's quite all right.

That leads directly into the next topic that I wanted to talk about, and that's how the state should be taking care of the people who need help.

A lot of people continue to hurt financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic, high inflation, other issues.

Representative, I'll start with you.

What priorities would you have to make sure that people are feeling a bit of an ease in that pain?

- Well, I will share this with you that we, of course, in the House voted for...

There's a small reduction in your fees, as far as the taxes for groceries and of course at the gas pump.

And also a rebate in your income tax things, which is a small amount, but I will tell you in this day and time, every penny counts.

And so of course, working on that.

Working again with these bills on the energy, this is so important.

And we've addressing it and we're not just coming up with it and then saying, "Oh yeah, well, we tried."

We're working and bringing this to attention because it is serious.

And so people that are understanding that, "Hey, do I buy my medicine or do I pay my utility bill?

Or do I pay for my car insurance?

Do I have the gas money to buy for my car to get to work?"

And so those challenges, we're addressing those things.

And the other thing that I've said, not just during the pandemic, not just during the price of all the things going up in the last few months, but I've said this for the six years that have been in office that we don't need to raise taxes, we need more taxpayers.

For us to have more taxpayers, we need to be friendly to businesses.

And so that's what we're working to make.

Illinois is a great place to come raise a family, all those kinds of things.

We've got to make it where people want to come to Illinois and those that are here, get them to stay here.

So that's literally working on a daily basis.

- Senator, what about you?

How would you make sure that the people who need help most are getting it and help those people who are feeling the pain?

- Well, I think we have to stay in direct conversation with folks on the energy issue, with folks on ComEd, Ameren.

We don't have ComEd folks down here, but decisions that get made generally get made according to what the needs are in that little portion of the state that are ComEd customers.

So I think we have to continue conversations about clawing back a couple of things that I think that are hurting us badly.

One of them is portions of the energy bill.

So number one, I think we have to address that.

We do need to really look seriously at the fact that we double tax people on gasoline.

We either should have the sales tax or we should have the Motor Fuel Tax.

I prefer the Motor Fuel Tax because we have the Lockbox.

I don't think that we need to have six, I think it's 6.5% on gasoline on top of the Motor Fuel Tax.

So I think we need to look at that.

We need to look at reducing regulations that keep businesses from being able to perform and perform at a rate that allows them to expand.

If you have, even little mom and pop places, the best way that you can provide for individuals is to make sure that a job is there for them.

Unfortunately, right now, because we have had, the kind of handouts that we've had in the state, which I know everyone needed during COVID, but at this point we need to get people back to work.

So getting them back to work I think does a lot to help folks in regard to being able to pay their own bills.

Reducing some of the red tape for things like truck drivers, for teachers, for nurses.

Nurses and teachers in, particular, trying to come here from other states.

Anything like that we can do to create more jobs, I think helps us economically.

- Senator, let's stick with those repercussions, perhaps, of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And one of those big repercussions was in education, where smaller communities, particularly here in Southern Illinois, were hit hard because the access to broadband just isn't available.

What would you do to expand that access for people within your district?

- Because what we find, I hope I get this right.

What we find in the federal money that we can obtain is that it goes to the areas that they already have some access, but not really good access.

And so we wanna capture those dollars I think at the federal level.

I wish they would make a few changes so that it becomes easier to access the federal dollars that allow for those who have no service.

So I heard back from a lot of people that have no service at all who say they want service, but then at the same time, we have people who say, "Stop prioritizing the places that have no service and prioritize the places that have minimal service."

And it makes a little bit of sense, but not really, because if you have no service, some is better than none.

But for those where there's minimal service, if they're already locating businesses there because at least there was some.

So increasing that allows those businesses to expand.

So I think that the main thing is, we have to continue to prioritize it as a state, but we also have to be willing to not want the credit for something so much that we don't allow for the fact that we also have to share this with the federal government.

So if Congressman Bost, Senator Duckworth, or Senator Durbin wanted to be involved in this, we definitely wanna have those conversations, and I'm happy to give them all the credit if they can make sure that they help us get this done.

- Representative, let's say you.

How do you increase broadband access for constituents in your district?

- So I appreciate what Senator said and we're working with the state and of course federal, our leaders on both sides.

And the great thing is actually there's more broadband every day.

There has been some state grants that the governor has actually been supportive of and the House and the Senate in supportive of to bring broadband to Southern Illinois.

And something else that I wanna bring out and point out to people, that in the past, utilities have been, of course, our power and as far as our water, sewer, but I will tell you that to me, broadband is now just as important a utility as the other utilities in the past.

And we have to make sure that we keep that to our forefront in our mind, working with that.

So again, working with the leaders on both sides of the aisle and making sure that Southern Illinois has those opportunities.

And the biggest challenge is, if I live down a country road and there's only me on my lane, I'm so proud that I own my however many hundred acres or whatever would be my few acres.

And so I'm on a country road, and I'm at the end of it, and so it's nice and quiet.

Well, that's wonderful, but now I want broadband service and the broadband companies are saying, "Look, if you could get five, 10, however many more people that wanna get on, then it makes it more viable.

So those are the challenges that we're addressing and we're aware of.

And so again, we see the importance of it, for education, for businesses, for people as far as healthcare, all those things, now with the telehealth, and haven't got into that, but the broadband is so important for those opportunities.

So I know time's going here, but we're addressing it literally on a daily basis.

And so thank you.

- We do have a short amount of time remaining and I wanted to get to at least one more issue that's very important, and that includes criminal justice reform.

A lot of changes have been made over the last several years when it comes to criminal justice.

And Representative, I'll start with you.

I wonder your priorities when it comes to what comes next or are there changes that need to be made based on what has been passed so far?

- So I'm proud to serve in the House in the Jude Crim Committee.

I'm actually the spokesperson for that committee where the Safety Act came through.

And actually, Senator was a Representative at that time and she was the spokesperson.

When she went to the Senate, I became the spokesperson.

So addressing those things, and there are, I will say this quickly, on both sides of the aisle, we see on our side of the aisle, no doubt.

On the other side of the aisle, the other people have come to the realization that there are things in that act, in that bill that have got to be changed, have gotta be addressed because there are things that are gonna be coming, that are coming our way if not changed, that police officers are gonna be in dire straits and ask of citizens in the community.

So I know we're getting close on time, so I'll throw it back to the Senator, but we have got to make changes to that.

Southern Illinois is a great, safe, wonderful place to live, and we've gotta keep it that way.

And we've gotta make sure and support our law enforcement.

- Senator, how do you stand on those criminal justice reforms?

- Well, so the easiest thing to have done, would've been to pick out the four or five good parts of the bill, which included body cameras and so forth, and implement those.

But repealing the actual, what they call the Safety Act, that Safety Act had changed roughly 80 different laws, many of which within the Safety Act itself, those changes contradict each other.

So we're still sorting out what do we do about these 80 laws that have been changed?

How do judges enforce them?

How do state's attorneys prosecute.

for instance, the no cash bail (audio cuts of speaker) that is the potential for, if you and I get into an argument and let's say I kill you in that argument, it's possible I could get no cash bail.

I could be out on the street with no bail offered because the person that was causing me to be so angry and upset is now out of the picture.

So I'm no longer a danger to anyone else even though I maybe committed murder.

So there's all of these things.

I think we need to claw back great portions of the bill.

I don't think that at this point, I don't think it's gonna be possible to completely repeal the act and do what I suggested at the beginning.

Right now we're probably gonna see trailer bill, after trailer bill, after trailer bill, but I want the folks at home to pay attention to the fact that at the very beginning we said this was the only thing that was gonna happen with this.

The bill is so bad.

It is so bad in so many areas that it should have been repealed and we should have been addressing the four or five issues that were good in that bill and filed them separately.

- And with that, we are out of time for this edition of "Meet The Candidates."

That's Senator Terri Bryant, joining us with Representative Dave Severin.

I'd like to thank both of you for the time this afternoon.

- Thanks for having me.

- Thank you very much.

- And you can catch all of WSIUs "Meet The Candidates" by going to our YouTube channel, and you can find us at wsiu.org.

I'm Jennifer Fuller.

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